Constance L Hargrove, Director of Elections, Pima County
Monday, October 3, 2022,
2:30-3:30 pm,
ASA Koffler Great Room
At a time when election officials across America are being driven from their jobs by hostile social media, even threats, and being accused of allowing our elections to be “hacked” or otherwise falsified, many of us want to know how our own elections are administered. Constance Hargrove, Pima County’s Director of Elections since April 2022, will come to ASA to demystify our local election process.
A veteran of nearly 30 years administering elections in Richmond, VA, and its neighboring Chesterfield County, Ms. Hargrove will describe the job of election administration, which is to ensure that elections are fair, safe, and secure–from enforcing local, state, and federal election laws to securing polling places and hiring, training, and supervising the individuals who work the polls on Election Day. In addition, her office is also a resource for candidates, records of past elections, and campaign finances.
While serving as Deputy General Registrar in the City of Richmond in 2011, Hargrove spearheaded the implementation of electronic pollbooks; in 2020, as General Registrar and Director of Elections for Chesterfield County, she devised several emergency reforms to reduce exposure risks for voters during the pandemic without lengthening voting wait times at the polls. From her start, she has championed the greater use of technology to improve the voter experience and to achieve operational efficiencies and cost savings. Among the new processes that Ms Hargrove has overseen since joining Pima Country were mock elections to get the “bugs” out of our system before the August primary.
Constance Hargrove received her primary and secondary education in the Richmond Public School System. She has a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Divinity from the Virginia Union University Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology. She served as deputy general registrar in the City of Richmond from 1995-2011, then as the deputy registrar in Chesterfield County from 2013-2017 and as General Registrar and Director of Elections from 2017-2022. Ms. Hargrove is also an ordained minister. She has two sons, William (Lynette) and Maurice, and seven grandchildren.
Preview compiled and edited by Suzanne Ferguson, Academy Village Volunteer